Crystal Lake near Crystal Mill Elk Range Ceramic Art Tile

A wooden mill above a small pool in the Elk Mountains of Colorado, built in 1893 to feed compressed air to a silver mine just beyond it. The road from Marble runs six miles of slow 4WD switchbacks. Only Jeeps and side-by-sides get up here. The mill leans on its rock, the wood gone silver after more than a hundred winters. Below it the Crystal River widens into a still pool that holds the colour of the sky. The buildings of the old town of Crystal sit a little further up the valley, mostly empty, mostly quiet.

Slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, in our family studio in Knoxville, Tennessee.